


stained pages

by room93



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Art School, Alternate Universe - College/University, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Photographer Ashton, Poet Michael, Writer Calum, painter luke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-05-13
Packaged: 2018-05-28 19:48:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6342679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/room93/pseuds/room93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Calum doesn't realize he's staring at his sleeping roommate until the other boy scrunches up his nose and turns around in his bed. Quickly Calum looks away, heat rising to his cheeks, similar to the burning cigarette between his fingers.</p><p>Or, the lives of four boys get intertwined during their years in art school and Calum makes poor decisions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

Calum _breathes_ literature.

 

Metaphorically, of course. Not literally. It’s just safe to say that without literature there would be no Calum. Well, maybe, but it wouldn’t be a very happy Calum. The boy is a stack of papers, each one clad with hundreds of words, and literature is the thread that’s holding his signatures together.

 

Literature is Calum’s spine. He breathes in the words, and he exhales through the pen in his hand, onto an empty paper, until his mind is blank and the paper no longer is. Until one day last year his spine had been ripped off, and the thread that had been _oh so_ carefully sowed underneath it had been cut through.

 

Not that he ever stopped writing, though. It was just that the ink of that terrible day stained through the paper, making it hard to forget the event, even if he had flipped several pages. And as desperate as Calum was to mend the shreds of his paperback cover, he knew it was better to settle for something new. Something safer. And a hardcover book Calum became.

 

 

This year, Calum starts a new chapter. College. The day he received his acceptance letter was  like he finally flipped a page where the stained ink wasn’t as evident as on the previous pages. That maybe one day Calum’s book would be clean of reminders of the past. A fresh start. A new beginning. He will never forget holding the envelope in his hand, trying to keep himself from ripping it open, and reading the one line that he is sure he has memorized by now.

 

**Congratulations, you have been accepted into the Central School of Art, Literature and Cultural Studies.**

After checking the receiver’s name and address at least ten times to make sure that the letter was really meant for him, he dialled up his sister. Mali-Koa seemed to be just as ecstatic as her younger brother. The conversation didn’t last very long as Mali-Koa was actually in the middle of her afternoon shift and had to go back to work. (She had excused herself to the bathroom when her phone started buzzing in her pocket and Calum’s name appeared on the screen.) Calum doubted whether or not to call his parents immediately, or tell them as soon as they were home. Despite barely being able to contain his excitement, he stuck with the latter. He told his grandparents the great news over the phone, struggling to hold his phone between his ear and shoulder, while pinning the letter to his corkboard. And that was it.

 

Calum didn’t post it to Facebook. Since last year’s unfortunate incident, Calum doesn’t go on Facebook anymore. He’s not planning to ever come back on any form of social media whatsoever. Not until the binding of the book that is his soul, is repaired.

 

-

 

It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon, and Calum is on his way to the supermarket to buy some ingredients for his first meal here at campus. He had thought of treating himself by ordering pizza, but it would cost too much. One day into college and Calum is already a broke man. (He kind of lost control when buying himself essentials. And hey, at least he owns three different kinds of shampoo and a fleece blanket with a puppy pattern now.)

 

He takes one last drag of his cigarette before throwing it away and enters the supermarket. It’s then when he realizes he’s not familiar here at all. The unsettling feeling in his stomach reminds him a lot of the times he went to the grocery store with his mother and lost her in the maze of aisles. He was a young boy back then, and all he had to do was wait for her to come back, because he knew she’d never leave him behind. Over the years he had gotten more familiar with the store and at some point he stopped going there with his mother altogether.

 

Right now, it’s different. Calum is going to have to walk through this supermarket, while pretending he’s a normal, functioning adult buying himself groceries. He takes a deep breath and grabs a shopping basket from the pile.

 

He wanders through the aisles and tries not to panic at moments when he can’t immediately find what he’s looking for. Back in his dorm it had seemed like a great idea to buy groceries before his roommate would arrive, but right now Calum regrets his decision. He wishes he had waited for his roommate so that they could’ve gotten lost in the supermarket together, and it would’ve been a bonding process for the two of them instead of one big rollercoaster of anxiety for Calum.

 

Despite feeling pretty miserable, he’s doing a good job. The supermarket is divided into different sections, each one indicated by large sign hanging from the ceiling. Everything is pretty easy to find, until Calum is looking for ramen noodles. Whoever decided to make it difficult to locate ramen noodles in a supermarket near an art school campus is a cruel human being, and Calum would tell them as much wasn’t such a wimp.

 

Everyone in this supermarket, including employees, has seen Calum walk past the same aisles for at least six times, but no one bothers to offer him some help. That’s probably because a normal person would walk up to one of the employees and ask them for help, but that’s not how Calum rolls.

 

Just when he’s about to give up and pay his other groceries because _fuck it, who needs ramen noodles anyway_ , he halts. Calum is not religious but this must be a sign of God. His saviour is shaped like a boy his own age wearing black skinny jeans, beat up converse and a red Japanese baseball jacket. He’s tall, and his blonde fringe doesn’t quite reach his blue eyes. In his left hand he’s holding nothing other than two packs of, drum roll please, _ramen noodles_.

 

Calum doesn’t realize he’s staring until the stranger waves at him awkwardly. It’s not really waving; he kind of just holds up his hand with his fingers spread out. Either way, it’s enough to startle Calum out of his stupor.

 

“Uhm hi, can I help you?” the blond asks and _fuck_ , he has one of those nice, deep voices.

 

Calum opens his mouth, but it is like he has forgotten how to speak proper English. Something he does know is that he has made himself look like a complete fool in front of an attractive stranger. And for some reason, the universe feels like Calum hasn’t fucked things up enough.

 

“Noodles.”

 

It is that moment that Calum wants to die right on the spot. Not only has he been staring at the other boy, he also manages to screw up even worse by only muttering out one damn word: _noodles_.  His cheeks turn bright red.

 

“I mean, uhm, where did you find the noodles?” Calum tries, but his brain keeps yelling at him that it’s too late for damage control.

 

The blond pretends nothing has happened up until the question.  To say Calum is relieved is an understatement. He’s glad this person is willing to ignore that he’s actually a mess and help him instead.

 

“Oh! It’s right here actually.” The other boy points at something right next to Calum, who turns his head. Just below the row of tomato soups, he sees different flavours of ramen noodles. Remember when Calum thought he wanted to die right on the spot? He takes that back. Right now is that moment. Never in his life has he felt more embarrassed.

 

The stranger seems to sense it breaks the silence between them again.  “It’s okay, I couldn’t find it either the first time I came here.”  He grins and offers Calum his empty right hand. “My name is Luke, by the way.”

 

And Calum just can’t believe this person is introducing himself to him, because introductions means there is a continuation, and apparently this person wouldn’t mind seeing Calum again. Since that feeling is mutual, he reaches out his own right hand and shakes Luke’s briefly. “Calum.”

 

-

 

While walking down the hall to his dorm, Calum feels so much more relieved than he was an hour ago. Not only has he finally found his _fucking_ ramen noodles, he also found himself a potential friend. After waiting in the queue together in the supermarket, they returned to campus together, since Luke lives in a building five minutes away from Calum’s. The two of them exchanged numbers and made a lunch appointment for Monday.

 

Calum reaches his dorm with his bag of groceries in one hand and his key in the other. He unlocks the door, enters his room, and his jaw drops immediately. In front of him stands his roommate, fresh out of the shower.


	2. Chapter Two

Out of everything that could’ve happened, Calum had never thought his first encounter with his roommate would be like this. He knew he’d feel awkward, that’s for sure, but he had expected to feel that way because of different reasons. Not because his roommate would stand before him with nothing but a towel around his shoulders.

 

That’s right, around his _shoulders_. The whole situation might’ve turned out a little more normal if the towel was wrapped around his waist instead. Of course, this is not the case, and Calum is stuck with his second awkward encounter of the day. He hopes this one turns out as well as the other.

 

Calum instinctively covers his eyes with the hand that isn’t holding the bag of groceries. He drops his keys in the process. Oh well, he’ll deal with picking them up later.

 

“I’m so, so sorry! I didn’t –”

 

“Could you please just close the door?”

 

It’s straightforward, but at least it’s polite, so Calum obeys. With one hand still over his eyes, he puts the groceries down near his desk and he tries his best to close the door. He knows it probably looks very clumsy, but at least it’s easier to close a door than to open it.

 

“You can look now. I mean;  I’m in my underwear.”

 

His roommate sounds confident despite  the fact that he was naked in front of Calum just a few seconds ago.  Calum removes his hand from his eyes.

 

“I’m so sorry.”

 

“You’ve already said that.”

 

An awkward silence follows. Calum shifts his weight from one foot to the other while wondering what to do next. When he looks up, it’s pretty obvious that the other boy has started to feel as uncomfortable as Calum does himself. Yet he can’t help but notice that his roommate is handsome; especially with his curly caramel blonde hair still wet. There’s small droplets of water falling onto his broad, tan shoulders, and Calum decides it’s best to focus on something other than the boy in front of him.

 

“I’m just gonna, yeah, just gonna...” The Maori boy motions at the grocery bag next to the desk before picking it up. He turns to the shelves on his side of the room an starts unpacking his groceries. Judging by the sounds he hears behind him, his roommate is probably getting dressed.

 

From then on it’s almost as if they’re pretending the other is not there. The tension in the room is thick enough to cut with a knife. Everything goes from bad to worse as soon as Calum realizes he doesn’t have enough space. It’s not the end of the world, because he could easily store some food in the shared kitchen. The thing about that is just that Calum doesn’t trust the rest of his floor with keeping their hands off of his food. He starts rearranging the groceries he has already unpacked, hoping that his roommate will leave the room as soon as he’s fully dressed. As usual, things don’t go Calum’s way.

 

Out of nowhere his roommate is standing next to him, with one hand leaning on the desk as the other holds out Calum’s keys.

 

“My name's Ashton by the way, in case you care.”

 

A pack of chocolate chip cookies almost threatens to fall out of the hands of a very startled Calum. “I’m sorry, I- I mean; it was never my intent to make an uninterested impression.” He hesitantly holds out his hand.

 

“Are you apologizing again or is your name ‘Sorry’?” Ashton raises one eyebrow expectantly as he drops keys in Calum’s open hand.

 

“No! That’s not my name, I’m so–” He clears his throat. “I’m Calum. My name is Calum. Nice to meet you.”

 

That seems to break to ice, for Ashton at least.  He rests his free hand on his hip. Calum thinks he either looks like a drunk dude who has been single all his life trying to hit on someone or a middle-aged dad trying to be cool.

 

“Storage problem?”

 

Definitely a middle-aged dad. In a hot guy’s body.

 

Calum nods. “Kind of.” He looks at the food packages, then back at Ashton. “Think you could keep some of this on your side of the room? Most of this was meant for the two of us anyway.”

 

“Yeah, yeah sure!”

 

Then he smiles one of the warmest, friendliest smiles Calum has ever witnessed in his life. Before he can get too distracted, Ashton asks him what he can bring to his side of the room. For half a minute the only sound heard in the room is the shuffling of packages, plastic bottles and cans.

 

“Fucking hell, it’s still too much,” Ashton mutters.

 

“It’s not like I’ve bought that many things.”

 

And that’s true;  Calum made sure to buy essentials only. (Which he really stuck to this time, unlike last Thursday, when he spent more money his bank account could grant him on stuff he didn’t need.) The real problem now is, is that there’s a lot of other things that are stored on the shelves, the desks, and all the other places that could serve as a place to store food.

 

“I know it’s not the most ideal place, but maybe we should try the common kitchen.”

 

“Not that it would help much, but maybe I could put some of the seasoning in the cabinets there,” Calum shrugs. “Almost the entire floor is white, it’s not like they season their food anyway.”

 

Ashton crosses the short distance in the room to playfully punch his new roommate’s shoulder. “Um, rude! We _do_ season our food.”

 

“Come on Ash, salt barely counts as seasoning. It only makes food salty.”

 

“Shut up, _you’re_ salty.”

 

In spite of his attempt to look offended by Ashton’s statement, Calum doesn’t manage to hold in his laughter. He just lets it all out. As soon as the tan boy in front of him starts joining in, he doesn’t even feel the slightest bit of shame for the hysterical sounds escaping him.

 

All of a sudden he feels more comfortable than he has felt for days. The sound of Ashton’s laughter feel like coming home, and so does the glint in his hazel eyes. Calum wants to smack himself for thinking that exact, cliché sentence.

 

“You called me Ash,” Ashton says as soon as both boys catch their breath.

 

Calum wants to smack himself for that, too. Something which Ashton seems to pick up, so he quickly adds: “It’s okay though! Like, all my friends call me Ash, so –”

 

He goes on for a little longer, probably going very off-topic, but it doesn’t matter because Calum has tuned out halfway. The words echo in his mind. _All my friends call me Ash_. Does this mean Ashton considers them friends? Or was he just saying that to make Calum feel better? Or maybe that wasn’t even his intention and he’s just informing Calum that his friends call him Ash. Or maybe he’s just this bewildered because they’re standing so close to each other .

 

“Cal?”

 

Even though Ashton’s voice is soft and gentle when he says the nickname, the brown-eyed boy is caught by surprise. He tells himself it’s because of the unexpected interruption of his train of thought. Not the nickname. At all.

 

“What are we?”

 

Ashton lets out a confused laugh, and so does Calum as he is just as stunned by the question as his roommate is.

 

“Aren’t you supposed to ask someone that after, like, a hook up or, you know, _a kiss_?”

 

The tension of a few minutes ago returns, but it’s a different kind of tension. Calum tries to his best to play it cool and lean back on his desk, except his whole plan immediately fails when his butt accidently pushes over a bottle of water. The cap is still on the bottle, to his relief.

 

“You’re– you’re saying it like it’s a bad thing,” he manages eventually.

 

“Like what is a bad thing?”

 

“A kiss.”

 

“Oh.”

 

A silence falls over them, and that’s a bad thing, because silence means there’s more room for thoughts, and thoughts are always out for disaster. No matter what direction they go; they will fuck you up somehow.  At least, that’s how it always goes for Calum. Right now, for example, all he can think about is kissing Ashton. His cheeks slowly start to heat  up, he feels mushy inside and he tries his best to look anywhere but the lips of the boy in front of him. Or his face in general.

 

“My friend still has a working mini-fridge she’s no longer using and we could go to the nearest IKEA for an extra cabinet.”

 

Calum nods. “Sounds like a good idea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> took me long enough...... oops
> 
> but first of all a big shout out to vanessa (jukeaf on ao3/malumtrashy on tumblr) bc she's amazing and v v helpful.
> 
> i'm mid-finals and i'm honestly sooo stressed lmao but i decided to finally finish writing this chapter as a form of relaxation
> 
> i didn't proofread this so if there's any major mistakes in there don't hesitate to point them out!!

**Author's Note:**

> i hope that wasn't too bad!! feedback would be appreciated :))


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